All right, so Les Miz is a book where 90% of the primary and secondary characters die. But does that mean we have to dwell on the fact? If I see another ficlet subtitled "My take on X's thoughts as s/he dies"... well.

There's nothing wrong with these fics, as such. They belong to the largely vapid but harmless class of Plotless Angst, along with the whingings of unrequited characters and the unanswered moral dilemmas of scores of hapless Enjolrati. If there are more of them that suck mightily, it's only because there are more of them in general, and some of them are quite well written.

It's just that they're overdone. And the ubiquitous tagline "my take on...", cited above, belies an unfortunate fact: the majority of deathbed fics do not take a new and original tack.

There are some. For Javert, there's "What Comes After The Barricades" (lacorneille), which melds influences from the book, the musical, and the 1998 movie and comes up, finally, with a Javert's Suicide that actually feels like closure: "He knows then that yes, he would always believe/And knows as well that his God is with him still..." For Grantaire, there's "Thoughts of a Leaking Winecask" (maenad), which strikes a convincing balance between irony, love, and fear: "And there might be a difference between the blackness of drunkenness and the blackness of death and the blackness of despair, depending on what shreds of fabric the angels had left over to throw over your head at the time, but you're not in any position to care." For Eponine, there's "Lark" (adrienneherbst), in which there is splendid imagery, and enough detachment to keep it from the mire of sentiment where most of the rest get bogged down: "The moon reminds me of the lantern in the courtyard where we played as children..."

Part of my trouble is that, until a piece like one of the foregoing changes my mind, I don't feel like deathbed fics need to be written. Fan fiction is about filling in the gaps and expanding the borders, not (generally) about retelling. Hugo gave us those deaths, Javert's and Grantaire's and Eponine's and Gavroche's, in loving detail. No, he doesn't tell us what they were thinking, but he doesn't really need to: their actions speak for them. And this is why I find the pervasiveness of deathbed fic so peculiar, because in almost every case, the expiring character in question is someone who dies very visibly (and, sometimes, vocally) in canon. No one seems interested in the last thoughts of Combeferre, stabbed as he tries to save someone else, or Madame Thenardier, rotting in a prison cell away from her family, or M. Mabeuf, ending his reclusive life with a bang. It's all about Eponine's fading vision of her beloved dolt's face, or Javert's soggy agony of angst.

I mean, where's the challenge?

More than that, where's the point? Because we already know that Javert can't live with his moral dilemma, that Eponine would rather die than watch Marius die, that standing up to be shot will be the most meaningful act of Grantaire's life, that Gavroche is just too goddamn young. Most deathbed fics don't show us anything new, anything that enriches our understanding.

Beyond this, there's a skeptical voice in my brain that wonders just how plausible most of these concocted "dying thoughts" are. If I was expiring with a bullet in my heart, I doubt I'd be forming coherent sentences, much less trite sentiments out of a Hallmark Family Movie on the nature of my devotion to the guy holding me, much less in rhyme.

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Eponine's Death, by Manon
Holy shit that hurts
I changed my mind, I don't
Want to die
I want my maman
I want to go home
God I'm scared I wish he would kiss me then I
Wouldn't be so damn scared
Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow OW!
I wish my eyes would focus
Because he's pretty and I can't appreciate it--
Oh God that's painful
Oh
What a nice boy
.....
....
...
..
.
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Ahem. I'm better now. You can undo the straitjacket. Honest.